By Justin Silver
So this is not going to be an in depth review of a space law issue. I realize that you may be wondering what the point of having a space law blog is if I'm not going to give you in-depth information on space law. Regardless, I think it may be useful as a first post to give a background on some current events that relate to space and talk about some of the legal questions they may raise. As a side note I have included at the bottom of this post two documents. The first is the Commercial Space Launch Act, which is the law that governs private space launch activity in the United States. The second document is a copy of the FAA rules governing requirements for privately launching human beings into space. I wanted to include them as they are going to be extremely important to any lawyer in the space law field going forward as commercial spaceflight tries to launch. (I promise to try and keep the cheesy space jokes to a minimum.)
First off, some very recent news is NASA's test of the J-2X engine that will be a major component of NASA's new launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS). The J-2X is actually an evolution of an engine used on the Saturn family of rockets during the Apollo program that has been updated for modern use. The Space Launch System, which is replacing the cancelled Constellation program, is a family of rockets based on Space Shuttle technology that is planned for use on mission to an object in the asteroid belt and then on to Mars. Related to this is the recent end of the Mars 500. Mars 500 was a Russian simulation of a 500 day trip to Mars. The experiment was conducted in order to test the reaction of a crew of 6 individuals on a simulated mission. Developments in exploration out of Earth's orbit raise some interesting legal issues. For example, how do you deal with a crew members that attack each other when the ship is 10s of millions of miles away from Earth and there is over a year left until return? What if an astronaut is injured upon landing on Mars and tried to file a lawsuit? Who would have jurisdiction?
Credit: SpaceX
Another interesting development in the field of space law is the birth of commercial human spaceflight. For example, SpaceX is developing the Falcon series of rockets and the Dragon capsule for both unmanned and manned flights to the ISS, private space stations such as those being developed by Bigelow Aerospace, the moon and even Mars. SpaceX revealed back in October that they have spent $500mm on developing their capsule and launch capability.
Needless to say, the development of private manned space exploration is going to raise issues that touch many different areas of the legal field including liability for injury, damage to property, and ownership rights to areas explored by private corporations on celestial bodies.
Credit: NASA
Finally, if any of you remember some of the worries about space debris back in September when UARS was about to reenter the atmosphere it appears as if the situation may be about to repeat itself. Russia launched Phobos-Grunt on Tuesday as an attempt at a very interesting mission to land on Mars' moon Phobos and return back to Earth with a soil sample. The launch was successful but once in Earth orbit the engines that were supposed to fire to send the satellite on its way to Mars failed and the spacecraft's orbit is slowly decaying. If the Russians are unable to figure out how to fix the problem the spacecraft could re-enter the atmosphere, and while experts believe the probability is low, possibly spread seven tons of toxic hydrazine fuel over land. The issues with the mission only serve to underscore the liability that arises with any space launch and the growing hazard that space debris will pose both in orbit and on Earth in the future.
Well I hope this was at least a bit informative and everyone in SSLLS hopes to use this space (sorry I couldn't resist) to present issues throughout the year.
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